Most everyone knows of Rosa Parks and her role in the fight for equality when she refused to get up from her seat to give it to a white man. Parks became the symbol that sparked the movement, but people don’t know that Parks was just the face and not the one who started it all

Behind the Movementa TV One movie looks at the lives of E.D. Nixon and Jo Ann Robinson the two responsible for starting the movement that birthed Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and so many more. Isaiah Washington learned so much from playing E.D. Nixon and was humbled to share about his role.

“Jo Ann Robinson and E.D. Nixon are the mother and the father of the civil rights movement and Rosa Parks was the face of the movement,” explained Washington.

Going into the role, Washington didn’t know who E.D. Nixon was and what he did. “Well that’s the thing. I didn’t know who he was and I thought I was pretty up on my American History and my African-American and Women studies,” said Washington. “Katrina O’Gilvie wrote a $3 million script. And the reason why I say that is because she was able to take a story and show us and the world that we were mis-educated.”

Completely amazed and captured by the wealth of this history Washington went on about Nixon and Robinson

“I came in not knowing anything about Joy Ann Robinson not knowing anything about E.D. Nixon,” explained Washington. “I think E.D. Nixon was playing me.”